How to apply 'correct' pressure?

Anyway, been playing vs some high ranked people (3k+ pp) and just asked them for some general feedback.

The main thing that i got back was that i dont apply enough pressure, and when i do try it isnt correct.

How do i do this correctly? I know it is very vague question but any help would be great.

Also, another thing is that they said i walk my self into a corner. I dont think i 'walk myself to the corner' but i do find myself there often. Any advice? I dont think i handle their pressure very well, maybe i dont punish enough? Not sure.

This is from February... I probly didnt play for about 6months after that, and have only started again in the last 2-3. Sorry i don't have anything more recent.

I dont jump away and walk into the corner like that any more, i hold my ground and poke a bit better and i know more than just 1 or 2 combo's. The end result is more or less the same though. This was a character the guy was learning, and on his main i got absolutely destroyed.

Watching this video i can say i have improved a lot, but not to the standards i want. I have trouble staying over 1k pp (not that it is a real measure of skill but it gives you a rough idea.... back when i recorded this i was lucky to break 500pp on a good day)

I think you get the general idea though that i play fairly timid because i dont know what to do do apply pressure. Experience has taught me that when i go in hard, i eat reversals, punishes and all sorts of wonderful and painful things

That's why you gotta condition your opponent to not use reversals or to bait them. If you've knocked someone down and they keep using wakeup DP, then safe jump and block next time. Once the reversal fails, get in there and get another combo going. You gotta think of what your opponent is thinking as well as what you're thinking. Also, you're playing very defensively and not looking for openings. Use some pokes to see if the opponent's defense is up to snuff. If it isn't, start a combo.

You're using Ibuki. She's a good character, but she needs you to know what you're doing. She can be an absolute beast when it comes to pressure, but her less-than-desirable health/stun won't do you any favors. Pick Ryu and learn with him before switching to a more advanced character.

Well, from watching your video there are a few "what were you thinking?" moments during a 30 second span I want to point out:

1:23 - Fei Long corners himself when you slide under his chicken wing. Rather than apply corner pressure, you choose to walk backwards, and not make him pay for what could've been a huge mistake.

1:25 - 1:35 - You keep moving backwards. What were you afraid of that you would let Fei Long continue to gain ground on you?

1:37 - 1:39 - You do 2 EX slides. At this range, Fei Long has no reason in particular to throw out pokes, except maybe something quick to bait you into doing something potentially unsafe or at least meter-wasting. Which you did exactly.

1:40 - 1:50 - You do almost nothing but block and crouch-tech during this time. Does Fei Long have you afraid to press buttons because of his pokes? Fei Long takes advantage of this by jumping in for a cross-up.

1:54 - You hit Fei Long with your combo, setting you up for further pressure. Fei Long whiffs his EX DP, but nothing comes of it because you jumped backwards. You were already at a range where EX DP would've whiffed (I think), so once you again you let Fei Long get away with a big mistake.

You do manage to take the round, but it's kind of Fei Long's fault for jumping towards you at a range where none of his jumping attacks would be useful. In his impatience, he forgot the golden rule of Street Fighter. An extremely noticeable pattern was that a lot of times when Fei Long put himself in a bad position, you instead backed off, letting him get away with his mistakes for free.

Alright, I'm pretty new to SFIV, and terrible at it, but I'll offer my two cents because I've been struggling with this same issue. I feel like this sort of timidity in footsies is evidence of the fear of losing. It's natural to hate losing, but in order to push ahead, one has to let it go.

Something that has helped me is turning on the CPU in training mode and just playing footsies with it. Don't even worry about jumping; just work on punishing whiffs, hit-confirming your normals when they connect, and blocking a lot. No one dies, no one loses--you just keep grinding away, and over time you start to develop a feeling for which of your moves are good at closer ranges. Don't forget about your focus attack. It's a crucial tool in footsies because it can allow you to take advantage of an opponent who throws out a slow normal. It took me longer than it should have to incorporate this into my game.

Then, go online and walk towards people. Let go of the fear. Walk forward, block, walk forward, block, all the while waiting for a good range to throw something out and watching for a slow move from your opponent that can be punished. Don't feel bad if you get counter hit a bunch, because that's going to happen at first. Just keep at it.

Aside from that, a poster above mentioned the Maj Footsies Handbook, which really is an excellent resource.

I'm bad at SSF4. I'm looking for someone who is similarly bad to train with offline in Austin, TX. PM me!

Get rid of the random slides. Ibuki can´t afford it
Don´t back off this much. Tsumuj is pretty safe on block, think at least the MK is 0.
Learn the superjump cancels, like the easy ones :
1. cr.HK, HK, d df f uf HK (if you are doing it right, your teleport should come out and you should be on the other side of the opponent -> HK crosses up, MK and LK don´t).
2. hitconfirm to target combo LK MK so you can do LK d df f uf MK d df f 3P

I said that this wasnt a good video to critique... A lot of the critique like random slides and always walking back and letting them wake up for free i dont do any more. I just didn't have anything moree recent. I probly shouldnt have posted it. Was just hoping you could see that after i do a few attacks, i sort of just back off because i dont know what to do.

Anyway, probly gonna learn Chun. She has great normals and is probably easier to learn at a lower level. Once i get good at her i'll go back to ibuki and i should have a better understanding of footsies and pokes.

characters that rely too much on correct input timing like Ibuki are difficult to play online, especially if you are a beginner. One missed hit and it is all over.
I think I had the same problem with Ibuki. But it is the one character with which I can apply most pressure
When I cornered the opponent I did often hcb, p 2-3 times and he couldnt escape.

But really, after the 2012 patch appeared, my losing streak increased tenfold. game became even more messed up.